fte' me an' every way I
turned he wouldn' take his eye offen me, an' I walked fast an' he got
faster an' den I run an' den he run, an' when I got home I jes fell on
de bed an' hollered an' hollered an' tol' my old lady, an' she said I
was jes' skeered, but I'se sho' seed dat sperit an' I ain't goin' by de
grave yard at night by myse'f ag'in.

"An' let me tell yer dis. Right in front of dis house--yer see dat
white house?--Well, last Febr'ary a good old cullud lady died in dat
house, an' afte' she was buried de rest of de fambly moved away, an'
every night I kin look over to dat house an' see a light in de window.
Dat light comes an' goes, an' nobody lives dar. Doan I know dat is de
sperit of dat woman comin' back here to tell some of her fambly a
message? Yes ma'm, dat is her sperit an' dat house is hanted an' nobody
will live dar ag'in.

"No ma'm, I can't read nor write."

Charlie Davenport, Ex-slave, Adams County
FEC
Edith Wyatt Moore
Rewrite, Pauline Loveless
Edited, Clara E. Stokes

[CHARLIE DAVENPORT
Natchez, Mississippi]

"I was named Charlie Davenport an' encordin'[FN: according] to de way I
figgers I ought to be nearly a hund'ed years old. Nobody knows my
birthday, 'cause all my white folks is gone.

"I was born one night an' de very nex' mornin' my po' little mammy died.
Her name was Lucindy. My pa was William Davenport.

"When I was a little mite dey turnt me over to de granny nurse on de
plantation. She was de one dat 'tended to de little pickaninnies. She
got a woman to nurse me what had a young baby, so I didn' know no
dif'ence. Any woman what had a baby 'bout my age would wet nurse me, so
I growed up in de quarters an' was as well an' as happy as any other
chil'.

"When I could _tote taters_[FN: sweet potatoes] dey'd let me pick' em up
in de fiel'. Us always hid a pile away where us could git' em an' roast'
em at night.

"Old mammy nearly always made a heap o' dewberry an' 'simmon[FN:
persimmon]. wine.

"Us little tykes would gather black walnuts in de woods an' store 'em
under de cabins to dry.

"At night when de work was all done an' de can'les was out us'd set
'roun' de fire an' eat cracked nuts an' taters. Us picked out de nuts
wid horse-shoe nails an' baked de taters in ashes. Den Mammy would pour
herse'f an' her old man a cup o' wine. Us never got none o' dat
less'n[FN: unless] us be's sick. Den she'd mess it up wid wild cherry
bark. It was bad den, but us gulped it down, a